Button confirms himself to McLaren for 2016
Discussion
JD PH said:
Amy.B said:
Hope Honda's engine improves next season! Otherwise Button's made the wrong decision 
To be fair you could argue that there are several millions reasons why he made a good decision!Whatever drive was available to him was not going to be a championship winning car, so he may as well take the most cash and buy a nicer yacht next year.
Also, if I were him I'd want to avoid going out on a low... like the worst season the team has had for 30 years. My logic would have been that it is big money and surely it can't get much worse. Equally, with so much focus on the car being so slow, it must've removed a great deal of pressure from the drivers - if they come last then it's the car's fault but if they start getting results it is down to their skill.
HarryFlatters said:
Amy.B said:
Otherwise Button's made the wrong decision
Wouldn't be the first time.He's already had a season at the back so if that was a problem for him, it is already so next year is irrelevant.
He's seen to be working hard in frustrating circumstances and staying pretty positive - reputationally good.
He's going to be paid twice as much for next year - financially good.
There's potential that McLaren-Honda could pull something out of the bag.
ewenm said:
There's potential that McLaren-Honda could pull something out of the bag.
As much as I'd like to believe that, even if honda turn the engine around to the same degee fez did for this year I don't think mclaren are capable of improving the car that much, they just don't seem to have the ability and most critically don't seem to acknowledge where they are.Mind, I could have sworn Jens was definitely off somewhere after singapore.
I think we will all be surprised next year, they've had a bad year but they're improving. Look at how bad testing was when they couldn't even complete 20 laps! To now been able to finish
I think Honda now knows the challenge and the problems and will be working away in Japan as we speak and with 32 available tokens you can pretty much redesign the whole engine & just to improve reliability costs no tokens so I wouldn't be surprised if they rock up at the 1st test and shock everyone
I think Honda now knows the challenge and the problems and will be working away in Japan as we speak and with 32 available tokens you can pretty much redesign the whole engine & just to improve reliability costs no tokens so I wouldn't be surprised if they rock up at the 1st test and shock everyone
hairyben said:
As much as I'd like to believe that, even if honda turn the engine around to the same degee fez did for this year I don't think mclaren are capable of improving the car that much, they just don't seem to have the ability and most critically don't seem to acknowledge where they are.
Mind, I could have sworn Jens was definitely off somewhere after singapore.
Is the car that bad? I thought the powertrain was considered the worst part and that the chassis wasn't that bad.Mind, I could have sworn Jens was definitely off somewhere after singapore.
Murph7355 said:
Is the car that bad? I thought the powertrain was considered the worst part and that the chassis wasn't that bad.
They were 5th last year, evan with the merc PU they were 3rd of 4 and couldn't beat renault-RB or fez and thats more than the slight HP disadvantage because of fuel, and the year before when the V8 engines were more equal they were 5th. They've been on a long downward slide for a while and have a lot of problems to fix- race strategy and leadership/race performance has been terrible for years but masked by great cars, once the cars stopped being championship-capable (and they were, year after year, only their insistence on shooting themselves in the foot to throw away race wins prevented it) they shot straight to midfield. Yet all you hear when you listen to them it seems like they think they're merc after singapore- it's nothing but a little blip and they'll be rightfully winning again next weekend. It's completely delusional- you can't better yourself without honestly appraising where you currently are.hairyben said:
Murph7355 said:
Is the car that bad? I thought the powertrain was considered the worst part and that the chassis wasn't that bad.
They were 5th last year, evan with the merc PU they were 3rd of 4 and couldn't beat renault-RB or fez and thats more than the slight HP disadvantage because of fuel, and the year before when the V8 engines were more equal they were 5th. They've been on a long downward slide for a while and have a lot of problems to fix- race strategy and leadership/race performance has been terrible for years but masked by great cars, once the cars stopped being championship-capable (and they were, year after year, only their insistence on shooting themselves in the foot to throw away race wins prevented it) they shot straight to midfield. Yet all you hear when you listen to them it seems like they think they're merc after singapore- it's nothing but a little blip and they'll be rightfully winning again next weekend. It's completely delusional- you can't better yourself without honestly appraising where you currently are.Otispunkmeyer said:
Yep they're in fantasy land IMO. Though I do have a friend who's just started at McLaren in their power trains dept. Not sure if its F1 or road cars though. He's good so hopefully the former! Might give him a bell actually and find out.
Since McLaren don't build their own engines, either road or race, I guess he'll be working on the roadcars.As regards the chassis, iirc when Prodromou went there he discovered their philosophy meant they ran the car stiff which limited the chassis tuning options. He changed that and the chassis is now well regarded. Alonso's comments about its speed through corners in Japan bears that out.
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